Number 2000: Woody: Faced with horror

This is the fourth and last posting of our crime week.

“Faced with Horror!” was written by EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein, and drawn by Wallace Wood. My interest in showing it to you is not because of the weak story— the surprise ending is telegraphed and obvious — but the artwork by Wood, which overwhelms its flaws.

Wood (signing himself “Woody”) was coming to the top of his form as an artist. His work here is inspired by Eisner, for whom he was also working during this time. Looking at his original art, which was sold at auction by Heritage for $11,950 (cheap!) his drawings, drenched in black india ink, give the story a noirish look, imbued with a power the story probably didn’t deserve. But that was Wood. His personal story, told in the recent Fantagraphics book, The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, Volume 1,* makes clear that at the time Wood was an obsessive, dedicated to his craft.

Scans of the original art are from Heritage Auctions. The story first appeared in EC’s Crime SuspenStories #3 (1951).

 *Highly recommended!

Number 1977: Ghastly: Two heads are better than none

When it came to the seedy, seamy side of life, Graham “Ghastly” Ingels could be called on by Al Feldstein, his editor at EC Comics, to provide the seediest and the seamiest. In those days traveling carnivals had that reputation. Maybe they still do. I haven’t been to one in years. Regardless, in “Heads-Up,” from Crime Suspenstories #4 (1951) the carnival is a backdrop for a tale of adultery and murder and jars full of human oddities. And why wouldn’t a wife and her lover want to kill a husband for his jars, especially when they can bring in $23.00 on a good day?

Heritage Auctions, from whence these scans of the original art came, sold the complete story in 2009 for $13,145.00...a bit better than 23 bucks.

Number 1520: Everything I know about cheating spouses I learned from EC Comics

I was sheltered as I was raised, not allowed to make a fist until I was 23 (as actor McLean Stevenson used to say). Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but up until I entered puberty I had no idea about The Real World Out There, the one where people who are married are sneaking around on each other. Puberty coincided with reading used copies of EC Comics, which I bought mail order (50¢ each!) from Bill Thailing in Cleveland, Ohio. Hoooo boy, did I learn a whole lot from them!

First and foremost I learned that when a wife or husband is cheating they will either kill their spouse or be killed by their spouse. Then they will return from the grave to wreak revenge. I believed the first, but not the second. No, revenge could not be that easy. In that era, as I later found out, many places, including New York where most comic book people lived and worked, had very tough divorce laws. So you couldn’t say, “Why don’t these wronged people just get a divorce?” Actually they could, because before divorce laws were liberalized, proving adultery was the one surefire way to obtain a divorce. Then, as now, some people try to get around any kind of divorce by just murdering their spouse. Seems awfully extreme to me, but it is bread-and-butter to writers of horror, mystery fiction and true crime books.

These pages by Ghastly Graham Ingels are scans of original art from EC’s Crime Suspenstories #7 I found a few years ago on Heritage Auctions. What impresses me isn’t the shopworn triangle love/revenge plot, but Ghastly’s treatment. His gothic style made even something like the circus look creepy. His characters can be unattractive, causing one to wonder how they could be involved in an affair. But then, as I emerged from my cocoon of naïvete thanks to EC Comics, I found that adultery is more a crime of opportunity and less about meeting some good-looker who sweeps you off your feet.